Dictatorship in Greece-Closing down the Public TV & Radio

If you don’t dare fire them, shut down the business altogether. Today, the Greek governmental representative announced the closure of ERT, the Public broadcasting system of Greece. Effective immediately 2700 people were fired and it was announced that from tomorrow ERT TV and radio stations will stop transmitting. At the same time all personnel will not be allowed at the premises. This is one of the most dictatorial decisions this government has taken, in an illegal way, not voted by the parliament! I guess this was the only way to please the IMF/ECB/EU that has ordered 2000 people from the public sector being laid off before the end of June. Now the information and news will be “transmitted” only through the remaining private TV and radio stations, which by the way most (if not all) are illegal, with no permits and owing large sums of money to the government.

22:54 and all the stations stop transmitting.

By the way the rest of the private channels do not think this is a big thing, a solid reportage and everyone continues its regular program as if nothing is going on! Their reporters thought it best to go on a “support”strike instead of broadcasting the massive congregations of protestors.

11 thoughts on “Dictatorship in Greece-Closing down the Public TV & Radio”

Karen it is probably too difficult to describe what has been going on in Greece the last 4 years. But I can tell you this: 3700 people has commited suicide since the begining of the crisis. Greece used to have the lowest rate of suicides, before that, but all the unfair and unbelievably hard measures, have made people desperate. They are unable to do anything at all, because the IMF/ECB and EU have made quite clear that they only like this “government” and will not support (see sabotage) any other legally elected governments. This way the have influenced many voters a year ago, who were ready to vote against the parties that have been governing Greece for the last 40 years. It meant that EU/IMF and ECB would do their best to sabotage any such government and (for example) hundreds of thousands of people with health issues would die, since there wouldn’t be any money for medicine . Remember Argentina more than 10 years ago? They couldn’t afford (actually weren’t allowed) to buy insuline. The cheapest of all medicine. If it weren’t for Spain and Paraguay that gave loads of insuline for free, thousands of diabetics would have died in the first week alone. I do believe that such things are only tests and if people allow them, other governments will follow.

This is incredible news that I’m certain no media outlets in America are reporting on either. So many generations will be affected by the architects of austerity who sit on their gilded thrones passing fiats from on high. My unofficial take is that the troika is intent on making an example of Greece and wants to especially avoid any Icelandic theatrics where the people actually gained some ground from the elite bankers. This is not about debt repayment, the bankers love debt because it pays for their castles. This is about putting the boot to the people’s neck to remind us of our place as serfs on the corporate plantation. Stay safe and stay strong.

I have been listening to many opinions and believe me, as a person who rarely watches TV (less than 1 hour per week) I really think that closing the only public broadcasting system is a crime. It was the only reliable source of information and offered quality program. They closed it down because it was not profitable. The whole announcement and excuses is to laugh if it wasn’t so sad. Note that private TV and radio are really quite young in Greece, only since 1987, so the audio and video archives of a whole nation will be sold or lost. One famous example is has they recorded soccer games over the tapes of the Junta trial, in order to save money! The public has lost one great piece of evidence, one chapter of history. Thank you Jeff.

These are bad news. However, by looking at it from outside the box, I think part of this is down to the government inability – or unwillingness – to face a situation and fix a problem. This is certainly a brutal and unorthodox method of restructuring and reforming a state owned organisation but in my opinion if Greece has been held to account for the financial crisis, it will be held to account for the duties and responsibilities that it has toward its population.

My feeling is that for some reasons the government thought that restructuring the state media (employment in public organisation is the hardest to restructure in most countries, I believe Greece isn’t any different) was next to impossible, so it decided to shut it down and probably reopen it “as soon as possible” in a cheaper and leaner fashion (perhaps as a private organisation funded by private investors and partly subsidised by the government).

These are indeed bad news. But of course they are only the tip of the iceberg. And as such you can imagine that the previous decisions and doings of this government were equally wrong and destructive, so we can not expect any good coming from this. Selling out at extremely low prices all the public companies and wealth of Greece is a downward spiral. The EU/IMF/ECB are forcing towards this sell out, for two reasons (as they claim). First in order to cut back public expenses and second as an example of good will. I only have to think for a second who profits from these transactions to understand the real reason this is happening.

This is not about the method. It is about the right to have a PUBLIC Broadcasting System. (that by the way was paid through the electric bill) I can not trust any of the private channels that hide money interests. Most of the owners are big construction companies. And none of them has a legal permition for broadcasting and owe millions to the government. Why not go after them first? When the governments in the past refused them a contract they were spreading news and causing scandals. ERT was the first Broadcasting system in Greece and has a vast archive. It will be lost/sold/divided. This way the valuable data that comprise the recent recorded history of Greece will be lost or become too expensive or hard to access. To put it simply, I am against phone tapping, even though I don’t have anything to hide. The right to speak freely is greater than the possible elimination of threats. And this is the cost of freedom. The same goes for PUBLIC Broadcasting companies.

The politicians in Greece have the sole responsibility for ERT. They have been hiring the head or the system, they have been deciding on the budget and they also interfered with the hiring (mostly) and the firing of people. If it needed reconstruction, (everything seems to need, but they have been firing people, or driving them to early retirement, so from 2009 until today, more than 300.000 people have left the public sector, but it was more like striping the public from valuable knowledgeable employees) it shouldn’t be closed and re-opened, but rather stop interfering with it and ask for results in a reasonable frame of time.

Last but not least, it is my firm belief that some things should always be Public. Water, Electricity, Postal services, TV and Radio stations, Health, Education, etc. By selling them out now, that the values in Greece are near zero, is like giving them away. And since the value of the archives alone, plus the vast network is unique, and paid all these years by the people, I find it quite offensive to talk about ‘”a profitable Broadcasting system” “lazy people with fat salaries” “and failed decisions”. And no, we don’t have the luxury of time anymore. They are dragging us down so fast, and falling is always easier than going up.

You know, the Greek constitution writes clearly that the parliament can have from 200 to 300 members. And the last 20 years the voters abstinence reached even 40%. But did they reduce the members of the Parliament to 200 ? No. Maybe they should start cutting from there, to prove their good will. In the old days politicians tried to change the world. Nowadays they only try to change the way we see the world. In a nutshell, propaganda.

Time is something we do not have. Our life is wasted with their stupid and treacherous decisions. Some things can be taken back, but I fear that we rapidly reach the point of no return and the solutions from then on will be very painful, especially for the innocent Greeks. Already 3700 have lost their lives due to the choking feeling of “No Way Out”.

I say no more. My kids have to live in a better world. There are ways.